The rule of thumb for long term investments is to expect about an 8% annual return in the stock market. While 8% sounds great, it’s not always easy to do. You have to pick the right company, buy at the right time, sell at the right time, and honestly get a little lucky.
One way to help you reach that 8% annual mark is to pick a stock that pays a good dividend.
There is a lot of growth potential in large cap dividend stocks today because many of them are still trading well below their pre-recession highs. There is also a lot of money to be made with dividends in certain stocks because many companies are posting record profits, and therefore paying a lot of those profits out to shareholders.
There are a lot of great dividend stocks, but one of my favorite is AT&T (NYSE: T).
AT&T Pays a Killer Dividend
As of today, 5/8/11, AT&T is paying a 5.5% dividend yield. That’s the ninth highest dividend yield of all the companies in the S&P 500, which is incredible. That means if you bought AT&T at 31.26 today and held for a year, you would earn 5.5% of 31.26, or $1.72, in dividends. The 5.5% assumes the company will pay the same dividend from the previous quarter (in this case $0.43) in each of the next four quarters.
That’s not always a safe assumption, but I find it to be an incredibly safe bet when you look at the history of AT&T’s dividend. They have paid at least $0.40 in every quarter since 2008. Yes, the same 2008 when we had the Great Recession. Through the entire recession, AT&T never decreased their dividend. In fact, it has risen from $0.40 in the first quarter of 2008 to $0.43 today.
Getting an 8% annual return is a lot easier when you have a 5.5% dividend payment that’s as close to guaranteed as you’re going to get in the stock market.
Take the Bad with the Good
I will be the first to tell you that I’m not a huge AT&T fan. I use T-Mobile for my cell phone carrier, and I am not happy about the merger. AT&T drops a lot of call, particularly on the iPhone. I have also had some bad experiences with their customer service for cable (before I set up my HTPC). With that being said, there are a lot of good things about the company.
- They carry the iPhone and iPad, which is huge for a lot of people and drives a lot of sales
- The U-Verse cable and internet service is actually great. I’ve had U-Verse internet and Time Warner Roadrunner, and U-Verse wins by a mile.
- They are a complete telecommunications company, offering home phones, internet and cable, mobile phones, data packages for tablets, and other data connection options. They are on the forefront of any new mobile technology.
- They will probably merge with T-Mobile soon to increase revenue, market share, and expand their network (potentially helping the dropped calls issue)
Overall, AT&T is a good company with a great history of solid performance. I’m not thrilled with them as a company, but they are at least average or better from a customer service perspective for most of their products. It’s not an exciting company, but they pay a great dividend and they have growth potential in what will certainly be a growing field for the few years.
Other Options
If you don’t like AT&T, try Verizon (NYSE: VZ). They pay a 5.23% dividend yield, and offer basically the same products and service as AT&T. In fact, you could invest in both to diversify a bit. I just love the telecommunications field because it’s only going to grow with every new smart phone, tablet, laptop, netbook, and anything else that needs a data connection.
Disclosure
I currently do not have a position in this stock.
Important to note that ALL ideas, thoughts, and/or forecasts expressed or implied herein are for informational and entertainment purposes only and should NOT be construed as a recommendation to invest, trade, or speculate in the markets.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
And a P/E of 9, too. That’s 11% per year, so dividend = half of earnings being returned to shareholders.
Growth is probably limited for a company of its size, but still one great stock on paper. I’ll have to look into it.
If the technicals are good, that’s even better! Hopefully I picked a good one!
I kicked off my dividend portfolio with AT&T. The 5.5% dividend is great and the PE is so much better than VZ. I don’t mind the slow growth at all for my dividend portfolio.
http://retireby40.org/2011/05/humble-beginning-dividend-portfolio/
Yeah, this isn’t going to be a huge growth stock, but it is great for a dividend stock. If I had any more money available for my Roth IRA, I would probably buy some. It’s too bad, I guess I’ll have to wait until I sell something or until 2012.